All Chapters of The Marriage That Stripped Her Bare: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

Yesterday, Thomas Quinn had personally helped pick out the million-dollar wedding gown I was wearing.Only, the one who tried it on wasn't me. It was Stacie Browning.While he was at it, Thomas had a little fun with her in the fitting room.He even had a noble-sounding excuse for it. "You're pregnant, so it's inconvenient. Better I make do with your sister than go out, sleep around, and catch something."...But now, looking at Thomas's furious face, I said numbly, "Can a sense of shame be traded for money?"Thomas's face only grew angrier at my words.But to me, shame mattered less than money. Money could get my daughter better medical care. Shame couldn't.Besides, I remembered my birthday last year. All I'd done was refuse to kneel down and wipe Stacie's shoes, and for that, I was stripped naked and thrown into the swimming pool.From then on, things like dignity and pride stopped mattering.Thomas's face went livid, and he roared at me, "Rose, you're beyond saving!"Actu

When I woke up, I was still lying on the cold floor.The blood on my knees had already dried. The wedding gown they'd stripped off me lay nearby, marked with several footprints.The banquet hall for our remarriage was completely empty.There was a hundred-thousand-dollar transfer from Thomas in my bank account. This was how Thomas usually made things up to me.Bracing myself against the wall, I got to my feet. I pulled out my phone and booked the cheapest standing-room ticket on an old, slow train, then arranged the safest possible hospital transfer for my daughter.Finally, I opened the texts my adoptive mother had sent me.Mom: [Rose, honey, if your birth parents aren't treating you right, your dad and I will sell the few hundred head of cattle we've got and come find you.]Mom: [My precious girl, if you can't get used to living with the Brownings, just come on home to the mountains. There'll always be a place for you here.]...This time, I didn't lie and tell her I was fin

Thomas felt as if an invisible hand had clenched around his heart, and it sank like a stone.Dead? His Poppy was dead?The little girl who called him Daddy in her sweet baby voice, who secretly tucked candy into his palm, was dead?If his daughter was dead, wouldn't that mean he no longer had any way to keep Rose under his control?Ridiculous!Thomas staggered a few steps and nearly lost his footing.Before he could roar into the phone, Stacie suddenly snatched it out of his hand.She screamed like a madwoman at the assistant on the other end, "How many times did Rose sleep with you? You'd even dare tell a lie like this?!"Her accusation was like a poison-tipped needle, jabbing straight into everyone's nerves.The Brownings' faces twitched. Thomas, too, looked incredulous."Mom, Dad, Thomas, don't you even believe me anymore?"Looking deeply wronged, Stacie pulled out her phone and pointed at a few photos, "I didn't want you to find out, since everything Rose says and does r

As Thomas's world was falling apart and the Browning household was thrown into chaos over Stacie's miscarriage and the earth-shattering scandal, I was stepping off the train with the crowd, carrying my small bag of luggage and holding Poppy's urn in my arms.Outside the station, two faces, tanned dark by the sun and lined with wrinkles yet full of eager warmth, were anxiously scanning the crowd.When they spotted me, their faces broke into smiles. Then, rubbing their hands awkwardly on their clothes, they hurried over."Sweetheart! Over here, over here!"My adoptive mother's voice carried a thick country accent. Yet right then, it was the warmest voice I'd ever heard.My adoptive father wasn't one for words. He just smiled, simple and honest, as he took every bag from my hands and hoisted them onto his own shoulders.They helped me into a rickety old pickup truck.My adoptive mother held my hand and smiled. "Sweetheart, your dad and I got you a little plot of land and built you